Three or two steps to the floor below, after school, most of the elementary school students walked out in twos and threes, only a small figure lingered there. The kid had short silver hair and was looking at something.

Like the leech, the boy is now called "Hua Kuo", and he was sent a little later to assist the leech in his work. Unlike leeches, he is only responsible for passing the work, so he has nothing to hide from others. In addition, he is too well-behaved, which is very pleasing to the faculty and staff. I have always gotten along with my classmates.

"Brother Leech, you're here!" The boy must have been overjoyed to see his only relative here.

"Shhhhhh Leech said as she pinched his face.

Since Leech was accepted as an apprentice by the Insect Tianzi, his generation has been shorter than Hua Jiuxi, so he just acts as the elder brother of the blind boy. The two have lived together on the hill of the Worm Heaven for more than half a year, and they have long been very close to each other.

"Well, not next time." The boy rarely refuses others, "Isn't there any chewing gum this time?" ”

The so-called "chewing gum" is the carrier of information, and the leech will secretly write the latest situation of the school on a slip of paper and put it in a gum box. When Laxmi or Huajiuxi picks up the blind boy every week, it spreads to the outside world.

"No—it's all chicken bits and pieces anyway...... Leech said, and there really isn't anything new except for the strange snake he killed last time. Although the leech can feel it, the demonic energy inside and outside the campus is faintly increasing.

"Look, tomorrow I'll take a bunch of idiot naughty boys to the grove in the back mountain." Leeches began to assign tasks, "Can you scare them away...... this is a better way for him to think of.

"Let me become a serpent, yes." The boy immediately understood what was going on.

Originally, Leech wanted to tell him "don't really hurt people", but he thought that the boy would definitely not make such a low-level mistake, so he gave up.

Leech inquired about the child's studies and other gossip, and he knew that he was trying his best to "play" the adult, which was somewhat ridiculous. (Aren't we all "playing" adults?) ）

However, the boy is obviously doing much better than him, and the leech has nothing to blame. So he let the boy go to bed early, and hid in the grove before the appointed time the next day.

It was another Saturday, and the sun was shining brightly, with bright lines in the air – it was the spider silk of late spring.

Although Jason's side said that he could gather a dozen adventurers from this grade, only six or seven people came. The leeches felt deceived by them, and thought there would be a big battle.

"One, two, three, four, I, six, seven...... Eight. The leech began to count the heads.

"Wait, the eighth?" Leech felt that there was one more person at some point, so he counted it again. When he finished reading the seven names, he couldn't remember the name of the last one, and he obviously felt very familiar......

This man was smaller than the rest of the boys, wore a big hat, and had a very delicate face, an Oriental face.

"Who are you?" Leech asked him.

"Can you separate me from the crowd?" The man's voice was thin, "So you're also a youkai?" ”

Monster?

Leech nodded, and said calmly, "It seems that there are other high-level youkai lurking in this school - at least they can transform into human form." ”

"No, no, little brother, I was in human form from the beginning." The boy took off his hat, and a piece of black silk hair popped out and hung down behind her back.

I found out that it was a beautiful girl, and she seemed to be younger than Ligia.

"Why are you mixed in with the human and not be discovered, illusion?" This is a guess by the leech.

"This is also an innate ability, and we are monsters that have always been close to children." The girl said.

"When children become adults, they don't notice me and play with me. You see, these little Western ghosts will soon become adults, and their voices will be thick and muddy when the time comes—it's better to be monsters, and they can control their growth cycles. The girl sighed as she spoke.

"Where are you a youkai?" Leech asked.

"Toyo."

"My name is—" She said a few odd syllables as she grabbed the leech's hand, which had an ugly scar on the palm of the leech, so she didn't want anyone else to look at it. The girl wrote a few Chinese characters in the palm of his hand.

"So your name is Himiko." Leech vaguely feels that this is a relatively common name in Japan.

But since the other party is a youkai from the East, then it is the main enemy of the leech's trip. But Leech saw that she was soft and weak, and she had no intention of doing it for the time being.

"Little brother, why are you looking at me like this?" Himiko asked him, "You think I'm a bad person?" We are not bound by the enmity of human society......"

Leech decided to stabilize her for the time being, so he said, "That's not unreasonable......

"I've been living in this school for a long time, for decades." "Because this is a church school, when it was first established, the earth god here took the initiative to move away and would not give it any shelter." So the campus has become a hotbed for disadvantaged monsters like us - not to mention that I'm a child demon in the first place? ”

This was something that Leech had never known, and the girl in front of him was obviously much older than him.

"So although there are a lot of Oriental yokai gathered on this campus, there are no big yokai at all." Himiko said, "I was a little worried when I recently felt the appearance of two powerful demonic forces. I wanted to find a chance to talk to you and prove that we are not bad people. ”

Her words were generally in line with Leech's judgment, and Leech said, "Well, as long as you don't hurt humans—I killed a big-bellied monster snake because he was going to attack the two fools over there." As he spoke, he pointed to the two Jasons in the distance.

"That's a wild snake, it's a relatively low-level youkai." Himiko said, "It's like a beast that hurts people...... Sorry, I forgot that. ”

"Can you restrain these monsters?" Leech asked.

"I don't have that ability." Himiko bowed and said.

What else to talk about, Leech felt that this conversation was becoming more and more bland, and wanted to end it early-of course, the most important thing was that the girl in front of her didn't seem to be as good as Rikia in terms of appearance and personality.

"So what kind of youkai are you?"

"Zashiki Boy!"

"Zashiki Boy."

Hua Jiuxi pointed to the projection of the two Ichimatsu dolls on the slide with his feet, repeating the name, "The word 'zashiki' comes from the words of Middle Buddhism, which can be understood as a kind of furniture furnishing. Zashiki Boy is a kind of monster that lives in human homes. ”

Listening to the lecture in front of Hua Jiuxi were several middle-aged and elderly people with serious expressions, and two of them had already bowed their heads. Although some wore military uniforms and some wore civilian clothes, they all sat upright and meticulous. Although the interior furnishings are simple, they are obviously the top configuration in China.

"Zashiki boy appears in the form of a child, and we suspect that this is a manifestation of the 'premature belief,' in which a miscarred or premature child remains with his parents and brings supernatural auxiliary powers to him." Hua Jiuxi said, and some of the old people who were born in the army obviously had some difficulty listening.

This is the last class, and Hua Jiuxi is a little anxious. But seeing the confusion on the faces of the "students", he had to slow down his speech again.

"Another characteristic of Zashiki is that it can bring happiness to the family. Happiness is intangible, but wealth is visible and tangible. Therefore, Zashiki boys are mainly able to bring wealth, which is similar to the beliefs of the 'Four Great Families' in the north of our country and the 'Five Paths God' in the south. And as long as Zashiki Boy settles somewhere, wealth will naturally accumulate in this area—especially like the White Immortals in North China, that is, hedgehogs, and Changxian, which are snake spirits. ”

The old men were obviously not interested in the tracing of this kind of folklore, Hua Jiuxi flashed a sentence in his mind, "play the piano to the cow", and said with a smile: "The point is that the Zashiki boy is not a powerful monster. If he hates someone, he will incur some small misfortune in the family - the big deal is bankruptcy, and it won't hurt people's lives, hehe. ”

There were two big men in long shirts whose faces changed color, Hua Jiuxi knew that these were two big chaebols, and hurriedly said: "The strength of the Zashiki boy is very limited, if there is the wealth of the enemy country, there is no need to be afraid of him at all." ”

"Because he was the least threatening, I put it in the last class. As for Toei's other mischievous monsters, I didn't plan to introduce them in the first place. Hua Jiuxi closed the handout and said, "I have taught you the simple way to eradicate the demons of the East, you must keep it in mind." Well, thank you. ”

The audience immediately burst into affirmative applause, whether they understood it or not, at least the young gentleman spoke very hard. Hua Jiuxi saw that nothing went wrong, and he also breathed a sigh of relief - these old people can't afford to offend.

In the second half of the secret room, two lights were immediately turned off, and several bigwigs in civilian clothes withdrew. The rest were all dressed in military uniforms, and the atmosphere that had just been cheerful for a moment immediately became depressed again.

Hua Jiuxi cleared his throat and motioned for the staff to change the set of slides. This time it's clear that what we're going to talk about is much more important.

So he was a little restrained, and after several middle-aged and elderly people drank the tea on the case, one of them wiped his mouth and said, "You can start talking." ”

"Okay." Hua Jiuxi responded.

The content of the slide behind him was replaced by a map of East Asia, and Hua Jiuxi began to speak: "Ladies and gentlemen, what I want to introduce now is the dispersion of Oriental monsters in our country in recent decades......

The old people whispered, and Hua Jiuxi and other voices quieted down and continued to speak:

"As everyone knows, the change of strength between us and the enemy began with the Meiji Restoration of the Japanese side and marked by the crushing defeat of our side in the First Sino-Japanese Naval War. The drastic political and economic reforms of the Meiji Restoration were bound to have an impact on all aspects of the country. This effect is not only for human society. ”

"Japan is a country that has been heavily influenced by Buddhist culture, and many yokai come directly from Buddhist scriptures. The Meiji government's policy of 'destroying Buddhism and destroying Buddhism' destroyed many strongholds of Buddhist yokai, who fled to their deaths, while the rest reached a compromise with the authorities. This is the first source of exiled yokai. ”

In addition, since the nineteenth century, Japan's management of the Ryukyus, Hokkaido, and later the Korean Peninsula has caused the local spirits to be affected by the Japanese Shinto demon gods. This triggered them to flee in the direction of the mainland. This is the second source of exiled yokai. ”

"The above two types of monsters, although they will conflict with the elves born in our country, do not constitute a contradiction between friend and foe."

"Could you please tell us about the power of Shinto...... one listener suggested.

"Okay." Hua Jiuxi is also prepared for this, "We usually think of Shintoism as a local development of Asian shamanism in Japan, which believes in animism. So the Japanese gods, called 'Kavi' in Japanese, have eight million people. And the emperor himself was the supreme representative of Shinto in the world, and the Yamato court began to use the power of witchcraft very early. ”

"There is a kind of people called 'Onmyoji', who, in addition to their native rituals, also learn Buddhism and Onmyodo mantras from the mainland. It's a group of people who suppress monsters from all over the world for the imperial court.,Therefore, it's a force that we can't be underestimated.。 ”

Seeing that no one asked, Hua Jiuxi picked up the previous content:

"Except for a small number of yokai who fled to the South Seas, most of them crossed the Tsushima Strait and entered the northeastern region of our country from the Korean line. Because it has been decades ago, these monsters have multiplied again and have spread all over the country. ”

Hearing the news, some of the veterans' faces sank.

"When they are different, there is another group of monsters with a court background, which can be called the 'Demon Advance Group'. Most of them were subdued by the Onmyoji and used by them. These demons were mixed in the ranks of the first and second exiles. After the enemy actually took control of the northeastern region of our country, which they called Manchuria, the power of these monsters increased greatly, to a certain extent, overpowering the old group of monster settlements, and there was a struggle and infiltration between the two sides. This is the current situation of the enemy. Above. ”

"It seems that the situation is very complicated." A middle-aged man from the Mediterranean silently lit a cigarette, and when someone looked at him, he immediately understood and said, "Old, forget that this is a public place-"

"It's complicated." "But the more complex the composition of the other side, the more contradictions we can exploit -- unite the majority and isolate the enemy as much as possible." ”

"You're right, young man." The middle-aged man from the Mediterranean just stuffed the cigarette into the breast pocket of his tunic and said, "I see that you not only have a lot of relevant knowledge, but also have good work ability." ”

"Huh?" Hua Jiuxi felt that there was something in this person's words.